Dan. Thanks. I appreciated the images and info. on large Chinese and Far Eastern. ports. The huge scale and extent are rarely shown in the media. Meanwhile, mainland China has developed whole cities and communities to manufacture, e.g. fully electric vehicles, including batteries, drive trains, bodies and even recycling. In contrast, it makes news in Europe if a single new factory for one product is mentioned. Truly changed times. As a lifetime scientist and engineer, it has always saddened me how ideas, often from the UK, have been taken up, improved on and transformed to commercial devices and products on the other side of the globe. Walshy.

Walsh wrote:Dan. Thanks. I appreciated the images and info. on large Chinese and Far Eastern. ports. The huge scale and extent are rarely shown in the media. Meanwhile, mainland China has developed whole cities and communities to manufacture, e.g. fully electric vehicles, including batteries, drive trains, bodies and even recycling. In contrast, it makes news in Europe if a single new factory for one product is mentioned. Truly changed times. As a lifetime scientist and engineer, it has always saddened me how ideas, often from the UK, have been taken up, improved on and transformed to commercial devices and products on the other side of the globe. Walshy.

Cheers Walshy.

I've been fascinated by China since reading about the adventures of Marco Polo,when I was 10.

The evolution of modern China is probably the 8th Modern Wonder of the World, and if they have stolen ideas it shows they have learned well from the British and American masters of the art. You don't think Windows,Google, Facebook and Apple harvest data on a scale that would have made East Germany blush?

Cheap labour? Like outsourcing employment to agency staff with minimal T&C's or even better, zero hours, "gig economy", contracts. We can still teach the Chinese a trick or two on abusing your workforce. We won't mention the slave trade.

Lower standards of construction? The 50 foot sink hole in the £400 million L2 dock within a year of opening.

China's High Speed Railway System.

China's Main Rail Network.

Now put the HS2 line into the UK overlay on the China map and consider how inept the running of our country has become.

I'm waiting for the new road from the container terminal to be announced as a horse and cart route. It is the most obvious green alternative.It's either that or scrap everything, retreat back into the caves and cover ourselves with woad. As a red, I find that thought the most objectionable of all.

Hi all, a photo of my uncle, John Freeman, I think he is working down the hatch, he is kneeling on top of the packing cases, sadly he was killed not long after, he was a passenger in a car involved in an accident at the Cottage pub on Derby Road heading back into Bootle. RIP.

Back in the day, I used Wilhemson Wallenius to bring Plywood from the Southern States ( Mobile, Alabama To Tilbury )It was called Troll Carriers in those days and they used flatracks roro. I did a lot of business with them, good people. Ken